The British Dental Association says that such a move could help reduce cases of mouth cancer - which kills around 1,700 people in the UK each year.

Dentists have access to people who may otherwise slip through the net when it comes to getting support to stop smoking

Dr Gordon Watkins

However, at present nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) continues to be omitted from the Dental Practitioners' Formulary and there is very little formal training of the dental team to give advice on giving up smoking.

Dr Gordon Watkins, Chairman of the BDA's Health & Science Committee, said: "Smoking has a profound affect on oral heath, from the social problems of bad breath through to mouth cancer.

"Dentists see more patients each year than any other health professionals in the UK and so have access to people who may otherwise slip through the net when it comes to getting support to stop smoking.

"By allowing dentists to prescribe nicotine replacement therapy and Zyban - and training them in how to help people stop smoking - the results could be significant.

"What we're talking about here is some good old-fashioned joined-up thinking."

In 2000, more people in the UK died from mouth cancer than cervical cancer and, without early detection, survival rates are low.

Mouth cancer includes cancers of the mouth, lip, throat and neck.

Amanda Sandford, of the anti-smoking charity Action on Smoking and Health, said: "It is so important that all health professionals who have contact with smokers should be able to help them to quit."

Doctors unsure

However, Dr Catti Moss, of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said that although she was fully supportive of the idea of dentists prescribing nicotine replacement therapy, they were probably not best placed to prescribe Zyban.

She told BBC News Online: "Patients who are prescribed Zyban had to be monitored very closely indeed.

"There is a long list of drugs that do not work well with Zyban and lots of reasons why the treatment has to be withdrawn.

"I don't think dentists would be in a position to provide the sort of monitoring that is required, however it might work if we could empower them to refer easily to doctors who were."

Dr Moss said it was important that doctors and dentists began to work together more closely.

She said there had been too much professional space between them for too long.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health accepted that dentists could play a role in the early detection of mouth cancer.

"Our Options for Change report, published in August, identified areas where dentists could, with the right training and support, make a greater contribution to the wider health agenda, including involvement in smoking cessation work.

"Demonstration sites are currently being set up around the country to test these new ideas.

"We look forward to working closely with NHS dentists to identify how best they can support local delivery".